U-boat Commands

Gerd von Pommer-Esche joined the Kriegsmarine in 1937. He served as a Raümboot commander with the 1st R-Boat Flotilla from March 1940 to Jan 1941 (Busch & Röll, 1999). R-boats were small minesweepers used in various roles in all theatres of war.

Invasion of Norway

During the invasion of Norway Lnt. Gerd von Pommer-Esche's R-21 was in action at Horten in Oslofjord on April 9, following R-17 into the harbour to land German troops at the start of the invasion. R-17 was sunk after landing troops, but R-21 managed to completed the mission and withdraw, despite being twice hit by shellfire (Haarr, 2009).

U-boat service

Von Pommer-Esche went through U-boat training from Jan to July 1941, when he began his U-boat construction familiarization (Baubelehrung) at Bremen for the type IXC U-boat U-159 being built there. On 4 Oct the new boat was commissioned by Kptlt. Helmut Witte who would become one of the most successful commanders of the war. Pommer-Esche was 1st Watch Officer (I WO), and served in that role until Feb 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Von Pommer-Esche went on three patrols in U-159, 208 days at sea, on the last two patrols going to the Caribbean and South Africa (Busch & Röll, 1997). U-159 was highly successful, and during von Pommer-Esche's service 22 ships (114,235 tons) were sunk and one damaged (Rohwer, 1998). Witte was awarded the Knights Cross for these successes.

Oblt. von Pommer-Esche went through U-boat Commander training with the 24th (Training) Flotilla Feb - June 1943. He took over command of the highly successful U-160 from another U-boat ace, Kptlt. Georg Lassen (Knight's Cross) on 15 June 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

First patrol as U-boat Commander

Oblt. von Pommer-Esche left Bordeaux for his first patrol as commander on 29 June 1943 (Busch & Röll, 1997). 16 days later, on 14 July 1943, the boat was sunk by aerial torpedoes from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (of VC-29) from the US escort carrier USS Santee south of the Azores. All hands were lost (57) (Niestlé, 1998).

Patrol info for Gerd von Pommer-Esche

About ranks and decorationsRanks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.